Friday, August 20, 2010

Another Dexter-tastic find by Luke. I should put him on permanent retainer as my crappy guitar broker.

As much as you know I love crappy early guitars, I still feel bad about calling this one crappy. This guitar rocks!!! Yes it's all beat up, yes the pick guard is all cracked, yes the knobs are all wobbly and the jack is hanging on by a thread, and yes the "chrome" is starting the rub off of the pickups revealing that they are indeed plastic, but those pickups still work and they are loud.

The Silvertone 1476 Bobkat was based on Harmony's H15 Bobkat with just a slightly different pick guard shape. While Harmony produced the bobkat from 1963 to 1971, evidence suggests that they may have only produced the Silvertone Bobkat in 1964 to be sold in the Sear catalog.

I have seen nothing but great write-ups on this guitar, mostly being from people reminiscing of their brand new one back in 64 and its dependability throughout the years. It's amazing how many people had this guitar for their first one, and went on to play out with it. What a great guitar to start out on. It's light, has a great feel to it, has a neck like a baseball bat but still plays surprisingly easy.

Restoration? Just gonna transfer all the electronics to a new reproduction pickguard for now. I may pick up an original pick guard in good shape if it comes along. I would kind of feel funny about totally restoring it. The body is so beat up but still intact. This guitar has to have a story... Granted, I'll probably never know what that story is.